Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Hindu Scriptures on killing animals [Re: Shiwaji] #21989 - 10/10/02 03:47 PM Edit Reply Quote

Ashvamedha and Purushamedha are not sacrifices in the sense of killings of Ashva and Purusha, as wrongly translated by the first generations of indologists (who were missionaries), but is a ritual in which Ashva ad Purusha play the central role in establishing or knowing/understanding how the balance of power respectively the division in society is. Would the Rajasuya then mean the pressing=killing of the Raja? Medha is a word which has a cognate in Medha=Wisdom or Medhira, which means the same. (Medha comes from older obsolete mazdha, which is attested in Avestan (Ahura) Mazda, the Varuna of the ancient Iranis. No Varuna is associated with killing of animals. The only time people are sacrificed is in the Antyeshti Yajna, or cremation ceremony. Gomedha doesn't mean the killing of Go=cow, but it means agriculture. It is known in old Iran-Afghanistan as Gomez, which is only used in the sense of agriculture. Both cultures are cognate, so are their customs.